


What Life Throws In Your Path

by Theyna_Shipper



Series: Star Wars One-Shots [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bus, Cute, F/M, I don't actually live in London, London, Really just fun, feel-good fic, light - Freeform, meet cute, reylo is life, so forgive my innacuracies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-23 05:37:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23206537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theyna_Shipper/pseuds/Theyna_Shipper
Summary: As she boards the bus after a terrible day, Rey is literally thrown into the arms of a sympathetic stranger. They both decide to make the best of their unhappy circumstances by getting to know their seatmates.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Series: Star Wars One-Shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1637683
Comments: 3
Kudos: 77





	What Life Throws In Your Path

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is really just a light, feel-good, meet cute fic that I wrote for the fun we all so desperately need right now!
> 
> (I don't actually live in London, this is just based of my experiences visiting, so forgive me any inaccuracies)

This day has really just been one terrible event after another. 

At the end of her shift at the coffee shop, Rey had been called into the back room by her manager, to be told that she was _fired_. Well, “laid off”. 

“Nothing personal,” Holdo had told her, “But the company is having mandatory layoffs at all locations, and- well, I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.”

Rey had left as quickly as she could to catch her bus at the London Bridge station, but had been in such an angry daze that she realized she didn’t have her card out until she was at the scanner. So she roots through her disorganized purse for it, letting everyone she possibly can ahead of her as she searches. The driver and passengers began to look annoyed with her. 

Finally, Rey manages to extract the card from the depths of her bag, and taps it against the scanner. An alert on her phone tells her that her balance has dropped to three pounds. “Well, this day just keeps getting better and better,” she mutters to herself. 

She hurries toward the last remaining seat, at the very back of the bus. But the driver hits the gas before she can sit down, and she’s launched toward the back, grabbing the first thing she can find for support. 

Unfortunately, that thing is another passenger’s shoulder. 

*******

Ben Solo has been on busses for over an hour now- goddamned traffic, missed stops, all of it-, but is jerked out of his tired reverie by some squeezing his shoulder with the force of a vulture grasping its prey. He looks up in time to see a girl being thrown to the back of the bus, and reflexively reaches out to stop her from flying into a wall. 

He grabs her around the waist, and she looks down at him with wide eyes. “OH MY JESUS CHRIST I’M SO SORRY,” she shrieks. Half the bus looks up at her. He pulls her into the seat next to him. 

“You all right?” he asks, helping her get settled in her seat with her bag. Its contents have dumped themselves on the floor. 

“Yeah,” she gasps, “Yeah, thanks, sorry. Sorry.” He bends down to help her gather pens and receipts. “Sorry. Thank you.” She takes a deep breath. “Sorry, it’s just been one bloody awful day.”

“Honestly, same,” he replies. “Must be going around.”

She laughs weakly. “I hope not. Though sometimes I wonder.”

“Yeah, no doubt,” he replies. “Ben Solo, by the way.” He extends a hand.

“Rey Kanata.” She shakes it. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too. So what’s your disaster today?” he asks. “Sorry if that’s personal.”

“No. It’s just-” she pauses. “Mind if I vent? I’ll let you go after.”

“Not at all.”

“Well, I just got fired. ‘Laid off’. So that’s wonderful. And then I got thrown into you. And I don’t have enough on me for the fare all the way back home, so I’ll have to walk. And wouldn’t you know it, it’s raining again.” She pulled an umbrella from her bag. 

“I’m sorry.” He pauses. “Please, let me help with the fare.”

“No. I don’t mind walking. It’s fine,” she insists, shaking her head. “How about you? What’s wrong with your day?”

“Had to work with a horrible client today, compounded with having to work with my horrible manager on a daily basis, except I actually had to _talk_ to Hux today- and commuting all the way from Hampstead Heath is never fun.”

“Hampstead Heath? That’s got to be like, an hour each way? From Central London?”

He nods. “And I missed a transfer and didn’t realize it for two stops, so I had to loop back. Same route every day, too.”

She nods sympathetically as the bus grinds to a halt. “Last stop. Nice talk, Ben, thanks for letting me vent.”

“Please, let me just loan you the rest of the fare,” he insisted. “It’s so nice to have someone to talk to after the long day.”

Rey is tired, and her feet hurt, and it’s been forever since someone has let her complain to them like this. “Thank you so much,” she says sitting back down. “I really owe you.”

“Nonsense, it’s my pleasure.”

She smiles tiredly. “So, I have to ask. Your accent- American? But you live here.”

“I thought you might ask, most people do eventually. Yes, I got transferred here for work about six months ago.” He looks her in the eye. “I’m actually finding it quite lovely.”

Rey flushes, swearing he looks right at her as he says _lovely_. “Glad to hear it,” she mutters.

“And you’ve lived here your whole life?” He continues. 

“Yeah,” Rey says. “Yeah, well, around England. Moved around.” She searches for something to say, not wanting to lose the first interesting conversation companion she’s had in ages. “So, Hampstead Heath? I don’t go out there often. Last time I went was a few months ago, my friend Finn was visiting and he wanted to see Marx’s grave.” 

He chuckles. “An odd request. Most people don’t even know he’s buried in London. Only true book nerds such as myself. And I suppose Marxists.”

“Finn’s definitely a ‘book nerd’. He found it ironic that they made you pay.”

“It is ironic,” Ben agrees. “Really says a lot.”

Rey smiles, not enough of a ‘book nerd’ to appreciate the joke the way Ben and Finn do, but happy to listen. 

They pass the rest of the ride in pleasant conversation, when the bus finally pulls to a stop close to Rey’s flat. She takes the card with a few pounds of fare left on it that Ben loaned her. 

“This is mine,” she says, standing up. “Nice chat. I really can’t thank you enough-”

“This is my stop, too, actually,” he says, walking off with her. “And really, there’s no need to thank me.” 

She hands back the card. “Nonsense. Is there some way I can repay you, get the money back to you?” They prepare to go opposite ways at the crosswalk. 

“Actually, there is one thing you could do,” he offers with a smile. Rey cocks her head quizzically. “Let me buy you dinner?”

Rey’s light changes. She ignores it, sputters for breath as she tries to gather the words for a response. “I- yes! Please. I- I’d like that.” She’d rather like to run away in embarrassment. 

He smiles. “I’ll meet you at our stop-” he gestures to the bus stop that they must both take in the morning- really, how had they never met before now?- Friday at 7?” 

Rey nods eagerly. Ben says a quick goodbye and crosses as his light changes. 

“I kind of had a terrible day,” she shouts after him. “But it picked up at the end!”

“It can’t have picked up as much as mine!” he calls across the street. 

Rey waits for another cycle of traffic to pass, and crosses back to her flat, an eager blush spreading across her cheeks.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and prompts for other Reylo one-shots greatly appreciated!


End file.
